🇮🇱🇵🇸 Latest updates on Palestinian-Israeli conflict:

▪️The death toll from the Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip has increased to 17,487 people since October 7, with 46,480 having been injured, Palestinian Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf Qudra said.

▪️Saudi foreign minister says it doesn’t look like the UNSC resolution on the Gaza ceasefire will pass.

▪️Civil order is breaking down in the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s blockade and hostilities, with multiple incidents of aid convoys being looted and UN vehicles stoned, UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East director in Gaza, Thomas White, said.

▪️China fully supports and joins in co-sponsoring the draft UN Security Council resolution proposed by the United Arab Emirates and considers it a universal call of the international community for peace in Gaza, Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations Zhang Jun said.

▪️Russia calls for an end to violence between Israel and Hamas and stands against attempts to forcibly move the residents of Gaza to the south, UN Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy said, adding that Russia deeply regrets that the UN Security Council has failed to take any binding resolution on Gaza due to pressure from the US.

▪️The government in Israel is planning to flood underground facilities in the Gaza Strip with seawater, Russian Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy said.

▪️The United Nations is committed to providing humanitarian aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip, but the conditions on the ground make carrying out this mandate impossible, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

▪️The brutality carried out by Hamas in its attack on Israel can never justify Israel’s collective punishment of the Palestinians, Guterres said.

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🇺🇸⚖️ The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) wanted to investigate links to President Joe Biden during the course of its probe into his son but was not allowed to pursue the connection, the US House Oversight Committee said.

The panel released a trannoscript from a US House Ways and Means Committee hearing with IRS whistleblowers.

"We were interested in following leads that went to Joe Biden — President Biden — not because he was Vice President, but because in any normal investigation, if you see financial transactions between son and father… we would follow those leads to the father," IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley told lawmakers. "We’ll never know because we weren’t allowed to investigate."

US House lawmakers have been investigating alleged criminal activity involving the Biden family, including foreign influence peddling and bribery.

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🇸🇦 Saudi Foreign Minister rules out Arab military intervention in Palestine-Israel conflict

Arab nations will not consider military intervention in the Gaza conflict as a means to persuade Israel to end its military operation, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan stated on Friday.

"Violence is not the answer, and we are not going to get drawn into this cycle of threat and counter-threatened violence and counter violence," Farhan said when asked if Arab countries would consider threatening Israel with military intervention in Gaza.

The minister led an Arab delegation that met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington to discuss the Gaza conflict. Farhan was joined by his counterparts from Jordan, Qatar, and Egypt.

Farhan emphasized the need for a cessation of hostilities and immediate access for humanitarian aid.

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🇺🇸🇺🇦 Hunter's criminal case, funding rows in Congress may force Biden toward Ukraine peace deal

The new indictment against Hunter Biden and struggles with Congress to get more funding for Kiev before the holiday break could pressure President Joe Biden into supporting efforts to end the Ukraine conflict peacefully, experts told Sputnik.

Former US diplomat James Carden believes the conflict in Ukraine has finally reached a point that has forced a non-trivial amount of opposition to more aid for Kiev.

"The war effort is now recognized as basically lost and more money isn't going to do the trick," Carden told Sputnik.

Retired Lt. Colonel and former Vice President of the Eurasia Foundation, Earl Rasmussen, sees support for Ukraine waning both within Congress and among the American public.

"Apparently, Joe Biden cares little about America and more about Ukraine," Rasmussen said.

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💵 US House unlikely to approve new Ukraine aid before end of year, according to reports

The US House of Representatives is unlikely to allocate new funding for Ukraine before the end of the year, a congressional source told Sputnik on Friday.

This week, the White House warned lawmakers that funding for Ukraine will run out by the end of the year.

Earlier in the day, a new Pew Research poll revealed that nearly half of Republicans in the United States say they believe the US government is sending too much aid to Ukraine.

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Scott Ritter: 'Zelensky sees the writing on the wall'

Given Ukraine’s pitiful state both on the battlefield and at home, President Volodymyr Zelensky will likely face an unprecedented backlash from his own military personnel in the near future.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky must face the "writing on the wall" after the failure of his summer counter-offensive, says a former UN weapons inspector.

In an interview with YouTube host Danny Haiphong, Scott Ritter, a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer, Ritter gave a stark assessment of the notoriously botched Ukrainian counteroffensive that began in early summer of 2023.

"The counteroffensive is over. It’s been a strategic defeat for the Ukrainians for the collective West. And what I think we’re going to see now is that the Russians, having absorbed the Ukrainian blow, are going to slowly go on the counter-counter offensive and begin to put pressure on the Ukrainians," Ritter stressed.

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⚡️US vetoes UAE-Proposed UNSC resolution demanding immediate ceasefire in Gaza, hostage release

The United States vetoed on Friday a UAE-drafted UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.

Thirteen members voted in favor and one abstained.

The draft resolution demands "an immediate humanitarian ceasefire" and "immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access."

On Thursday, deputy US ambassador to the United Nations Robert Wood said that the United States believes that another UN Security Council resolution on Gaza will not be helpful right now.

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“Over the last three days, the NATO “paper tiger” has contradicted itself several times on the real possibilities for Ukraine to win”

CIPI Foundation Director Paolo Raffone spoke to Sputnik about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s continued popularity in light of his decision to seek another term as president in 2024.

Raffone suggests the West has begun to believe its own propaganda about Ukraine’s chances for victory, while Putin and Russian military leaders have played the long game.

NATO has been revealed as a “paper tiger,” the analyst says, and the West will be forced to seek an exit strategy from Ukraine’s confrontation before elections next year.

Only after those elections may the West’s anti-Putin stance begin to soften, says Raffone, and Russia, China, and the US will work together to arrive at a settlement while Europe’s slavish devotion to US dictats will ensure they remain “irrelevant.”

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🇺🇸💸🇺🇦 Ukraine aid topic unlikely to impact outcome in swing States in US election, according to reports

The topic of US assistance for Ukraine is not expected to make a difference in swing states in the 2024 elections, even in those that economically benefit from it, former Republican National Committee Chair and ex-US Ambassador to the OSCE Jim Gilmore told Sputnik.

The implication that Ukraine aid is being given to certain states for political purposes would have to be proven, but this is a situation where the defense companies are simply located in these certain states, Gilmore added.

The ex-US Ambassador said he is "certain" that Congress, especially Republicans, will eventually approve more funding for Ukraine to keep them going next year.

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🪖 Ukraine is running out of pro-soldiers as draft-eligible men flee

As the Kiev regime forges ahead with its lackluster counteroffensive, it is not only increasingly running out of ammo but is also forced to acknowledge the gravity of Ukraine’s losses.

Ukraine is fast running out of professional military personnel, The Washington Post has reported. Growing numbers of fighting-age men are either dying in the "meat grinder" of Kiev’s botched counteroffensive, deserting active-duty service, or dodging the draft. No one wants to die a pointless death on a suicide mission, it was stated.

“Too many civilians seem content to leave the fighting to ‘professional’ soldiers,” the outlet cited members of Ukraine’s Armed Forces as complaining. Amid waning support among NATO allies for providing aid to Ukraine, it is not only losses of military hardware and ammunition shortages that are a problem for President Volodymyr Zelensky.

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🇺🇦 West doubts Ukraine's ability to conduct major counteroffensive until 2025, according to reports

The West believes Kiev will most likely fail to launch another significant counteroffensive until 2025, as the Ukrainian forces need time to recover after this year's failed military campaign, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing Western diplomats and military strategists.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told the newspaper that his country was forming brigades for "new counteroffensive and defensive operations," but Western military strategists reportedly said it was rather shifting to defensive positions, which, in particular, could be confirmed by Ukrainian troops digging trenches near Krasny Liman.

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🇺🇸 Hunter Biden's attorney claims the client is targeted with new charges because of his family name

Hunter Biden has been indicted on new tax-related charges because of his family name, defense attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement to Sputnik.

“Based on the facts and the law, if Hunter’s last name were anything other than Biden, the charges in Delaware, and now California, would not have been brought," Lowell argued on Friday.

Lowell further asserted that US Special Counsel David Weiss, who is overseeing the Biden investigation, "bowed to Republican pressure" to file gun charges against Biden in September.

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Donetsk People's Republic shelled by Ukraine 10 times in past day

Ukraine shelled the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) 10 times over the past day, the DPR representative office in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination (JCCC) of issues related to Ukraine's war crimes said in a statement.

"Over the past 24 hours, the office reported 10 cases of fire by Ukrainian armed forces," the office wrote on Telegram.

According to the statement, there were no civilian casualties reported.

The DPR said that Ukraine fired 35 rounds of various ammunition. In total, the Kiev regime launched 19 strikes in the previous day.

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🇪🇺🌍 BRICS Momentum: Is EU pivoting towards a multipolar horizon?

The European Union (EU) has launched an open debate about its relations with BRICS in the European Parliament, marking a pivotal moment amid global shifts away from American hegemony toward a multipolar world.

Conservative European politicians want to cultivate ties with the group of emerging economies led by Russia and China.

The BRICS group has expanded to 11 members with the accession of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates, — and has the potential to grow to 18 in the future.

The group of non-Western countries holds significant economic and political sway, prompting the EU to seek partnerships with the coalition at a conference this week ennoscriptd "The Rising Power of BRICS: Implications for the European Union."

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🇺🇸 US judge approves settlement that bars separation of migrant families on southern border

A US judge approved a settlement that bars US officials from separating migrant families that illegally cross the US southern border, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a press release.

The US government is barred from re-enacting the zero-tolerance policy over the next eight years, the ACLU stated, adding that the settlement takes effect on December 11.

According to the release, the US government will continue to identify families that were separated, fund their reunification in the United States, and provide a pathway for them to seek asylum in the country.

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🪖 New Ukrainian brigades lack needed vehicles and have obsolete equipment - report

According to a recent report by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Western military aid to Ukraine has plummeted by 87% year-on-year from August to October, reaching its lowest since January 2022 of $2.3 billion. This plunge can be attributed to the lack of new commitments by the European Union and the United States.

A Forbes article recently revealed that photographs featuring the five fresh mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were noticeably lacking combat equipment. Moreover, these brigades might be supplied with outdated Soviet vehicles.

Forbes explained that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are currently in the process of forming five new mechanized brigades: the 150th, the 151st, the 152nd, the 153rd and the 154th.

"None of the photos show the brigades' equipment. An old BMP-1 appears in some photos, but it probably belongs to a training unit," the journalist noted.

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🇺🇸 Hunter Biden will “not go down alone”

On Thursday, Hunter Biden was charged by a federal grand jury in California on nine charges, including three felonies and six misdemeanors.

“I really don’t think that Hunter Biden is actually going to be convicted,” Sabrina Salvati, an activist and former educator, joined Sputnik’s Political Misfits podcast to share her opinion on the issue. “I’m pretty sure he’s probably lawyered up, there’s been a lot of time that has passed for him to make sure he has all his ducks in a row, and I think that’s why he is so willing to testify,” she added.

Meanwhile, the investigators are seeking a private testimony from Hunter Biden, but aren’t interested in the public one that Biden has offered them.

According to Salvati, Hunter Biden will “not go down alone,” that’s why he wants to “have this public display” to target the Republican party.

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🇬🇧🇷🇼 UK pays Rwanda $126Mln amid new asylum deal

"Ministers have agreed that I can disclose now the payments so far in the 2023-24 financial year. There has been one payment of £100m, paid in April this year as part of the Economic Transformation and Integration Fund [ETIF] mentioned above ... This was entirely separate to the Treaty - The Government of Rwanda did not ask for any payment in order for a Treaty to be signed, nor was any offered," UK Home Office Permanent Secretary Matthew Rycroft said in a letter to lawmakers.

The official further stated that London had paid Kigali 140 million pounds in 2022; however, no migrants were transported to Rwanda that year.

Another 50 million pounds will be wired in the 2024-25 financial year "as part of the ETIF as agreed with the Government of Rwanda when the Migration and Economic Development Partnership was signed," the letter read.

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🇷🇺 Vladimir Putin congratulated Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik's parent media group, on its 10th anniversary, wishing that it maintain its leading position

"It is gratifying that you are worthily continuing the creative traditions of your predecessors - famous journalists, correspondents, editors, translators, publicists. You generously share your experience and knowledge with young employees," the congratulatory telegram read.

The president expressed confidence that the media group "will continue to raise the bar for the quality of its work and maintain its position as one of the recognized leaders of the domestic and international information space.”

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📹 Russian drone operators from the Far Eastern Airborne Forces in the area of Artemovsk in the DPR shot down a Ukrainian drone known as the "Baba Yaga" by ramming it in the air with their own drone.

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🇷🇺 Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin congratulates Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik's parent media group, on 10th anniversary

The prime minister stressed that the media group "sets high journalistic standards in the media space" of Russia and beyond, and that its round-the-clock news resources "in dozens of languages provide a wide audience of readers and listeners with reliable and objective information about the most important events in the world."

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